Jeremy Corbyn promises to find £3bn to plug hole in school budgets

Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to find £3 billion to plug the shortfall in school funding - but declined to specify how he would raise the cash.

Speaking at the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) conference in Shropshire, he told delegates that the Labour party is “brave enough” to “fully reverse” the £3 billion of savings that schools need to make by 2019/20, according to the National Audit Office.

Asked by John Gadd, a head teacher of Thomas A Becket Junior School in West Sussex: “Are you brave enough to fully reverse the £3 billion in cuts?”, Mr Corbyn replied: “I believe we are brave enough to do it because I see education as a complete priority and that is what I want to achieve".

Jeremy Corbyn addresses a conference for head teachers on Sunday in TelfordCredit:
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Labour leader went on: “Because it unlocks the potential of children and if you look at it at an economic level further down the line we have a skills shortage across the whole country, we have a lack of investment in skill training for post school”.

“And that means we’ve got to look again at the spending we put into schools and if every school is now faced with a funding crisis or the vast majority of them that is not a good way forward.

“And I am determined to lead a government that will give the priority it deserves to education, not the blame culture of head teachers and teachers in under funded schools. I am determined to change it.”

Mr Corbyn - who was wearing a Keir Hardy Society badge with the slogan “Socialism Peace Equality” - hinted that he would use a rise on corporation tax to fund his education policies, but said that details will be "revealed in our manifesto".

He told delegates: “I’m afraid I can’t give you a sneak preview of the full Labour manifesto today but be assured if it’s a choice between a tax giveaway to the largest corporations paying the lowest rates of tax in the developed world or funding for our schools. Labour will make very different choices from the Conservatives.”

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Labour has previously been accused of conjuring a “magic money tree” after pledging to use an increase in corporation tax to fund numerous policies.

Graham Brady, a Tory MP and chair of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs, said that this is “yet another unfunded pledge from Jeremy Corbyn which will bring no real comfort to anyone”.

He added: “We need strong stable government delivering continued economic growth if we are to arrive at a genuine fair funding arrangement for schools for the future.”

Mr Corbyn, who was educated at Adams’ Grammar School, a selective school in Shropshire, told delegates that he was “very sad” to have grown up during “the era of the 11 plus”, adding that the town was “divided at 11”.

“Children grew up together, and then suddenly, I think in Shropshire in those days, 35 or 40 per cent of children went to grammar schools, 60 65 per cent didn’t,” he said.

“Suddenly there is a division and those children are separated. So I am not in favour of selection at all.”

Mr Corbyn also claimed that giving free school meals to all children will “boost attainment level”, despite questions having already been raised about the evidence used to justify the policy.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner previously told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the “evidence from National Centre for Social Research and the IFS have both been quiet clear that actually providing universal school meals at primary level will raise attainment."

However, one of the co-authors of this report told the same programme that they had found a "slight improvement" on pupils' attainment, but "we certainly do not know if this impact will replicated nationwide".

Mr Corbyn, who plans to fund his free school meals policy through charging VAT on private school fees, insisted on Sunday: “There are clear educational benefits to providing universal free school meals. It boosts the attainment and level of education of our children.”